Cardas Clear Power Cord

The Medium-Size Cable for Smooth, Low-Noise Power

Cardas Clear Power Cable is George Cardas’ midrange Clear-series AC power cable. It is designed for applications where you need a bit more current capacity and a higher degree of filtration than Clear M Power Cable, but you don't need a large, high-current power cable like Cardas Clear Beyond.

Clear power cables graduate progressively in size and degree of filtration from Clear M to Clear to Clear Beyond. According to George Cardas, "They are essentially progressively more effective as they increase in size. The filtration is similar in all three cords using a combination of a toroidal filter and graduated conductor lay length variation to cancel out-of-band material. The larger cords have more layers and progressively greater lay length variation."

The Clear Power Cable is the latest state-of-the art AC power cord from Cardas. "It is a medium sized very flexible cord designed to provide smooth power and low noise floor on all three legs of power," George Cardas told us.

Clear provides broadband filtering on all three legs through a hybrid process that incorporates a tuned toroidal filter and multipath-canceling conductors in a flexible low resistance package.

"The Mirror of Clear Speaker Cable"

According to George Cardas, "Clear power cable is in fact the mirror of Clear Speaker cable. Clear interconnects and speaker cables are designed to pass the smallest of changes unfettered by time smear, and this is accomplished by carefully matching the propagation constants of the cable.

"Clear power cables actually are designed to deliver smooth 60-cycle power while smoothing out the artifacts," George explained. "We achieve this in part by deliberately smoothing the power signal and muffling the noise circulating in the power system using a controlled mismatch of signal propagation. Essentially it is the same core knowledge that is found in Clear signal cables utilized in a manner appropriate to a power cable."

The following information applies primarily to Clear audio cables but still provides an insight into the innovative approach of the Clear series in general.

"Clear represents the best of Cardas," reports Alan Sircom in issue 66 of HiFi+ magazine, "so if you are already impressed with Cardas but want more, Clear could be the first, 'last' upgrade you make, sure in the knowledge that however high up the audiophile ladder you climb, Clear will be there, waiting for you to catch up."

Clear technology is scientifically demonstrable. It presents a 'clear' technical solution to a core problem that is intrinsic to signal-carrying cables (speaker cables, interconnects, etc.) and will quite 'clearly' improve the sound of connected hi-fi and home theater components.

The Trouble is Dielectrics

One problem with standard audio cable designs is that the cable dielectric (also known as cable insulation) produces an electrical effect that interferes with the audio signal. While there is no current flow in dielectric materials, the dielectric accumulates and releases an electrical charge in response to the current flow in the conductor, much like the charging and discharging of a capacitor. But the electrical discharge from the dielectric is out of sync with the electrical signal in the conductor.

While the electrical signal in the conductor moves at the speed of light, the charge propagation in dielectric material is limited to approximately 78 percent of the speed of light. The discharge of the dielectric lags behind the charge in the conductor, causing a smearing of low-level information in the cable.

The Lagging Charge Problem

At very high frequencies, cables can appear to propagate faster because the slower dielectric materials don't have the time to charge at very high frequencies, and the lag is diminished.

At audio frequencies, however, this lag creates a noticeable problem. That's why dielectric manufacturers may brag about what their dielectrics will do at a million cycles per second, but don't talk about what they do at a thousand cycles per second, where the negative effects are audible. Jitter is one directly observable artifact of this conductor/dielectric relationship.

Some cable manufacturers try to compensate for this differential lagging in a cable by adding an electrical network (for example, by using a load coil), but the damage has already been done. Once the low level information in the signal has been smeared, it is lost and cannot be recovered.

The Matched Propagation Solution

Since the so-called 'charge propagation velocity' of the dielectric can never equal the speed of electrical changes in the conductors, George Cardas' ingenious solution with Cardas Clear cables is to slow the conductor to match the rate of the dielectric.

In a concentrically stranded conductor with individually coated strands (such as the constant "Q" conductor used in Cardas cables) the vector velocity and decay time of the conductor can be matched to that of the dielectric by controlling the lay length progression (twists per inch or TPI) of successive strand layers.

A matched propagation velocity conductor of this type, as used in Cardas Clear cables, mitigates the effects of capacitance much as a load coils do, but it does this continuously in the cable rather than at intervals. Eliminating the time delay between storage elements in the cable itself eliminates the bandwidth and dynamic range limitation seen in periodically loaded cables.

A Huge Dynamic Range of Resolution

Clear has a constant transfer characteristic, exponentially lower resonance, and a huge dynamic range of resolution. Its Matched Propagation Conductors maintain low-level information and natural transients in a way that no other cable can. It does not exaggerate the leading edge of the signals or smear low-level information as conventional conductors do. Clear maintains the overall time signature of the original sound elements making it easier to pick out what George Cardas calls "the head in the choir or the emotion in the individual voice."

The insights and technology in all the Cardas Clear cables brings a new level of clarity and realism to your listening experience.